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Tour de France 2022 odds, field, predictions: Proven cycling expert locks in surprising picks, best bets

Sportsline's gene menez correctly predicted the winners of the yellow, green and white jerseys in the 2019 tour de france.

A band of challengers will try to end Tadej Pogacar's reign in the world's most famous bike race when the 2022 Tour de France begins on Friday in Copenhagen, Denmark. The 23-year-old Pogacar has won the Tour the last two years but will need to fend off several rivals to win his third Tour. Those include the runners-up the last two years, Jonas Vingegaard ('21) and Primoz Roglic ('20), 2018 champion Geraint Thomas and Russian upstart Alexander Vlasov. 

Pogacar is the -170 favorite (risk $170 to win $100) in the latest 2022 Tour de France odds from Caesars Sportsbook. Vingegaard is second in the odds at +450, while Roglic is +500. The Tour de France 2022 ends on July 24 with its traditional finish on the Champs-Elysees in Paris. With so many variables in the 2022 Tour de France, you'll want to see the latest 2022 Tour de France predictions from SportsLine senior writer Gene Menez . 

A former reporter and associate editor for Sports Illustrated, where he covered an array of sports for almost 14 years, Menez has been obsessed with the Tour de France for almost four decades. He has been following the iconic three-week race since the mid-1980s when Greg LeMond was riding to three yellow jerseys. In 2019, Menez correctly predicted the winners of the yellow, green and white jerseys, and last year he nailed the winner of the white jersey.

Menez has analyzed the 2022 Tour de France favorites, route, and top contenders and has picked his top-three finishers for the yellow jersey, as well as the winners of the green jersey (best sprinter), polka dot jersey (best climber) and white jersey (best young rider). He's sharing all of his expert Tour de France 2022 picks only at SportsLine . 

Top 2022 Tour de France picks

One shocker: After studying the route and the results of the contenders in the race, Menez has landed on Fabio Jakobsen (+550) taking home the green jersey even though he is not the betting favorite. (Wout van Aert is, at -140.) Jakobsen has been the best and most consistent sprinter in the world this year, with 10 victories. He also has won the green jersey in three stage races this year: Valencia, Algarve and Hungary.

Menez prefers Jakobsen over van Aert because the latter will likely be asked to help teammates Vingegaard and Roglic in the mountain stages, which could take a lot of starch out of his legs. On the other hand, Jakobsen's team will dedicate all of its resources to Jakobsen's green jersey quest. "I'll gladly take +550 on the fastest man in the race," he says.

How to make 2022 Tour de France picks

Menez's pick to win the Tour de France is a rider who "is in terrific form." He's also is high on a "strong climber" at "nice odds" to win the King of the Mountains jersey. He is sharing all of his 2022 Tour de France picks only on SportsLine .

So which rider wins the Tour de France 2022? Who finishes on the podium? And who captures the green, polka dot and white jerseys? See the 2022 Tour de France odds below and  visit SportsLine to see Menez's detailed Tour de France expert picks , all from the SportsLine senior writer who has been intensely following the sport for more than three decades.

2022 Tour de France favorites, odds, top contenders

See Tour de France picks, predictions and best bets here Tadej Pogacar -170 Jonas Vingegaard +450 Primoz Roglic +500 Geraint Thomas +2200 Alexander Vlasov +2200 Daniel Martinez +3500 Ben O'Connor +5000 Adam Yates +8000 Enric Mas +8000 Romain Bardet +8000 Nairo Quintana +10000 Jakob Fuglsang +10000 Johan Esteban Chaves +12500 Rigoberto Uran +12500 David Gaudu +15000 Wout Van Aert +15000 Louis Meintjes +15000 Jack Haig +15000 Damiano Crauso +15000 Thibaut Pinot +17500 Sepp Kuss +17500 Alexey Lutsenko +20000 Brandon McNulty +25000 Michael Storer +25000 Michael Woods +25000 Chris Froome +25000 Lennard Kamna +25000 Thomas Pidcock +30000 Guillaume Martin +30000 Guilio Ciccone +30000 Steven Kruijswijk +30000 Pavel Sivakov +40000 Warren Barguil +40000 George Bennett +40000 Rafal Majka +40000 Marc Soler +40000 Andreas Leknessund +40000 Mathieu Van Der Poel +50000 Bob Jungels +50000 Ion Izagirre +50000 Pierre Latour +50000 Patrick Konrad +75000 Maximilian Schachmann +75000 Mattia Cattaneo +75000 Joseph Dombrowski +100000 Matej Mohoric +100000 Marc Hirschi +100000 Tiejs Benoot +100000 Matteo Jorgenson +100000

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Play Fantasy Tour de France with road.cc!

How is it Tour de France time already? Even as we speak the team mechanics are rolling posh bikes out of the back of lorries in the car parks of nondescript Copenhagen hotels ready for the Grand Départ on Saturday. There's almost a week of flat riding (including a cobbled stage that will no doubt claim one GC rider) until the race hits the Vosges mountains, and then it's a war of attrition for the rest of the three weeks until the race spits out a yellow jersey winner on the Champs Elysées. And if you play our Fantasy Cycling competition you can live every turn of the wheels along the way.

What's Fantasy Cycling?

It's very simple: Pick a team of riders, and if they do well in the race they score points. And the more points they score, the better you do!

Read our Tour de France 2022 race preview

You can play against thousands of other road.cc users, and you can set up private leagues for bragging rights over your friends or work colleagues.

Once you've picked your team and they all turn out to be duffers like ours (above) inevitably will be, you can transfer in the good riders you should have picked in the first place. You only get 45 transfers over the 21 stages though, so pick wisely! If that sounds like too much hard work for you, there's a purist competition where you just pick a team for the whole thing, like you'd have to if you were managing a real team, and take the hits as they come.

It's not just about getting over the line first: riders score points for the different jersey competitions, KOMs, intermediate sprints... even rolling in dead last. So there's lots to think about. What kind of stage it is, who's in form, who's ALWAYS in the break, who's doing well overall, who's very much not... so many decisions to make.

Register now!

You'll need to be a registered user of the site to play, then all you have to do is head over to fantasy.road.cc to join some competitions and pick your team. The Tour de France is open now, and there's competitions going on throughout the season.

You can play 8 competitions in the year for free, so that would cover all the grand tours and a bunch of other races if you wanted. If you're a road.cc subscriber you can play as many as you like.

Visit fantasy road.cc to get playing!

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Dave is a founding father of road.cc, having previously worked on Cycling Plus and What Mountain Bike magazines back in the day. He also writes about e-bikes for our sister publication ebiketips. He's won three mountain bike bog snorkelling World Championships, and races at the back of the third cats.

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If I can't have Cav, I'm not playing!!

Also; 'a cobbled stage that will no doubt claim one GC rider'? Let's not curse Geraint before the whole thing's even started.

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I did, I just think he's full of s***

Cycling is not a lawless act, because its totally lawful to kill a cyclist....

Energy from the Severn - it's always baffled me why one of the highest tidal ranges in the world can't be harnessed for a clean, predictable and...

My cleaning go-to is old t-shirts. I've got mixed feelings about the fluff of microfibre towel; tea towels not so much as they don't have the bit...

Inventive Journalism "Car Collides with wall", lazy journalism would have been 'Crashes' ...

Two points of clarification....

Unlikely IMO.  They've already pretty much run out of parliamentary time. Only statutory instrument stuff could get done now.

Good luck Dave. May well see you there. Hopefully the weather will be like it is this week!

Well done for Reading cyclists for being so welcoming.

Looking forward to seeing the frothing right wingers wading into this, along with Mark Harper of DfT fame with a suitably unhinged viewpoint...

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Your guide to greatness in the 2021 CyclingTips Fantasy Competition

Some tips on how to get the most out of our fantasy comp over the next few weeks..

Heading out the door? Read this article on the new Outside+ app available now on iOS devices for members! >","name":"in-content-cta","type":"link"}}'>Download the app .

When riders clip into pedals in Brest this weekend for the start of the Tour de France , they also signal the kick-off of the 2021 CyclingTips Fantasy Competition Around France.

For the next few weeks, you’ll have the chance to pick one rider a day to lead your fantasy team to glory, with the possibility of winning prizes if you can manage to come away with a fantasy classification win.

This time around we’re shaking up the scoring system to make for a better competition. The new system rewards you with points for picking a rider in the top 10 of each stage, and the points scale is the same on every stage. In other words, you’ll get as many points for picking a sprint stage winner as you will for picking a mountaintop finish winner.

Meanwhile, if you miss your proverbial throw at the startlist dartboard on a breakaway day, you’ll be in the same boat as if you picked the 11th fastest finisher in a sprint, instead of being a seemingly insurmountable five minutes down on GC.

To help you pick a winning team, we’ve put together a guide with an overview of the basics, as well as some more in-depth advice to help you achieve fantasy greatness.

Before going any further, sign up for the Fantasy Competition here .

Get to know the rules

Understanding the rules of any competition is pretty important to having success, so let’s start there. The CyclingTips Fantasy Competition is pretty straightforward but it may also be a bit different from other competitions you’ve participated in.

Here’s how it works: You pick one rider per stage, and that rider can score points for your team based on where he finishes in the actual race, with a sliding scale of points awarded for any placing inside the top 10 (see below). Once you’ve picked a rider for a stage, you can’t pick him again later in the race, so be judicious. It’s a long race with 21 stages, so you can’t pick Tadej Pogačar to win every mountain stage!

At the end of the Tour, the player with the most points wins the fantasy competition. It all sounds pretty intuitive to us, which is why we like it. We hope you will too.

The scoring rubric is as follows:

Rider selection 101

Once you’ve got the rules down, you may be wondering how to pick your rider for a given stage. Make sure to keep a few tools in your tipping toolbox.

First, taking a look at a stage profile is absolutely key to making an accurate prediction for the day. If you’re relatively new to scoping out stage profiles, be aware that the vertical gain is not represented on the same scale as the distance. Otherwise, even fourth-category climbs would pose physically impossibly challenges for the peloton to overcome, with 5% gradients looking more like 100% gradients in race graphics.

As an example of how you might use a profile (and our handy guide has all of them in one place ) take a look at stage 19 of the Tour. Being a relatively flat stage after a few tough days in the mountains, it looks like it will probably come down to a bunch kick, so you’ll probably want to name a sprinter to your lineup if you want the best chance of winning the stage.

And if there was any doubt of that, you might use another key tool in the fantasy toolbox: betting odds. Bookies make a living by being smart about predicting outcomes. If you’re looking for insight on which riders might be well-suited to a certain stage, consult the experts.

Beyond the basics of rider selection, you want to tailor your team to the rules. If you’re not sure about a rider’s form before a stage, feel free to take a wait-and-see approach and potentially pick him later, because once you’ve picked him that one time, you won’t have an opportunity to rely on him again later in the race.

At the same time, if someone looks like they’re flying, make sure to capitalize on that when you can. This is bike racing, after all, and crashes do happen. You may not want to wait for a rider to take on that perfect parcours for his skillset two weeks into the race if you know he’s riding well and has a good shot on a stage right now.

Racking up points in the competition will require you to be knowledgeable about the sport and tactical with your selections. There is plenty of chance involved as well. Crashes happen. So, too, do breakaways, which are often extremely unpredictable.

Compared to the way things ran in the past, the new scoring system is likely to dampen the impact that both of those things will have on your fantasy experience. Previously, you were liable to lose several minutes if you picked a rider who crashed or simply stuck with the peloton on a breakaway day. Now, those selections hopefully won’t knock you out of the running entirely.

That said, breakaways will still be important, and big breakaways will afford a lot of points to the tipsters that have picked a rider up the road – while anyone who misses out will get nothing. On the other hand, you’re gambling any time you pick a pure breakaway rider.

For starters, it’s hard predicting whether a stage will go to the break or the bunch! And beyond that, even stages that go to the break can often see the big names placing highly just behind the move. If you pick an escape artist that misses the move on a high-mountain stage, you’ve missed out on solid points by eschewing that selection of a yellow jersey contender.

Keep all that in mind over the course of the race, and be strategic with your picks. If you know you need big points to get ahead to achieve your fantasy goals, you might find it worthwhile to take a few chances. If you’re sitting pretty with a big points total and want to run out the proverbial clock on your mini-league (more on that in a moment), maybe play things a bit more cautiously.

Join a mini-league

There will be some serious bragging rights and even some prizes on offer for the overall competition, but you may find it even more fun to join a mini-league with your friends to vie for fantasy supremacy within your own crew.

Creating a mini-league is easy, and from there you can invite your friends, and you can also take advantage of some customization options. If you liked the old time-based system, you can switch things up to run your mini-league that way.

Once you’ve got your mini-leagues sorted, you can look forward to 21 stages of competition against your pals, regardless of how things go for you and your team in what’s sure to be a highly competitive overall leaderboard.

Whatever you do, have fun with it. You may not ever get a chance to race up Mont Ventoux yourself, but you can put a fictional racing team in the hands of real riders taking on the real challenges over the next few weeks, and that’s got to count for something.

Follow the links for our stage-by-stage breakdown of the 2021 Tour de France route and the riders you should be keeping an eye on.

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\"recirc\", \"location\": \"list\", \"title\": \"giro d\u0027italia stage 3: merlier strikes first in sprinter showdown after poga\u010dar springs late attack\"}}\u0027>\n giro d\u0027italia stage 3: merlier strikes first in sprinter showdown after poga\u010dar springs late attack\n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n "},{"title":"results: pete stetina and karolina migo\u0144 win the 2024 traka 360 gravel race","url":"https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/gravel\/gravel-racing\/results-pete-stetina-and-karolina-migon-win-the-2024-traka-360-gravel-race\/","markup":" \n \n\n\n \n\n \n \n >\", \"path\": \"https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/gravel\/gravel-racing\/results-pete-stetina-and-karolina-migon-win-the-2024-traka-360-gravel-race\/\", \"listing_type\": \"recirc\", \"location\": \"list\", \"title\": \"results: pete stetina and karolina migo\u0144 win the 2024 traka 360 gravel race\"}}\u0027>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n \n\n \n\n \n \n\n \n \n >\", \"path\": \"https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/gravel\/gravel-racing\/results-pete-stetina-and-karolina-migon-win-the-2024-traka-360-gravel-race\/\", \"listing_type\": \"recirc\", \"location\": \"list\", \"title\": \"results: pete stetina and karolina migo\u0144 win the 2024 traka 360 gravel race\"}}\u0027>\n results: pete stetina and karolina migo\u0144 win the 2024 traka 360 gravel race\n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n "},{"title":"visma-lease a bike keeps faith in jonas vingegaard: \u0027winning the tour will be difficult, but not impossible\u0027","url":"https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/visma-lease-a-bike-keeps-faith-in-jonas-vingegaard-winning-the-tour-will-be-difficult-but-not-impossible\/","markup":" \n \n\n\n \n\n \n \n >\", \"path\": \"https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/visma-lease-a-bike-keeps-faith-in-jonas-vingegaard-winning-the-tour-will-be-difficult-but-not-impossible\/\", \"listing_type\": \"recirc\", \"location\": \"list\", \"title\": \"visma-lease a bike keeps faith in jonas vingegaard: \u0027winning the tour will be difficult, but not impossible\u0027\"}}\u0027>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n \n\n \n\n \n \n\n \n \n >\", \"path\": \"https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/visma-lease-a-bike-keeps-faith-in-jonas-vingegaard-winning-the-tour-will-be-difficult-but-not-impossible\/\", \"listing_type\": \"recirc\", \"location\": \"list\", \"title\": \"visma-lease a bike keeps faith in jonas vingegaard: \u0027winning the tour will be difficult, but not impossible\u0027\"}}\u0027>\n visma-lease a bike keeps faith in jonas vingegaard: \u0027winning the tour will be difficult, but not impossible\u0027\n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n "},{"title":"giro d\u0027italia stage 4: jonathan milan wins wild sprint, poga\u010dar avoids trouble in dangerous finale","url":"https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/giro-ditalia\/giro-ditalia-stage-4-jonathan-milan-wins-wild-sprint-pogacar-avoids-trouble\/","markup":" \n \n\n\n \n\n \n \n >\", \"path\": \"https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/giro-ditalia\/giro-ditalia-stage-4-jonathan-milan-wins-wild-sprint-pogacar-avoids-trouble\/\", \"listing_type\": \"recirc\", \"location\": \"list\", \"title\": \"giro d\u0027italia stage 4: jonathan milan wins wild sprint, poga\u010dar avoids trouble in dangerous finale\"}}\u0027>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n \n\n \n\n \n \n\n \n \n >\", \"path\": \"https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/giro-ditalia\/giro-ditalia-stage-4-jonathan-milan-wins-wild-sprint-pogacar-avoids-trouble\/\", \"listing_type\": \"recirc\", \"location\": \"list\", \"title\": \"giro d\u0027italia stage 4: jonathan milan wins wild sprint, poga\u010dar avoids trouble in dangerous finale\"}}\u0027>\n giro d\u0027italia stage 4: jonathan milan wins wild sprint, poga\u010dar avoids trouble in dangerous finale\n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n "},{"title":"giro d\u0027italia gc analysis: is geraint thomas the only opposition to a poga\u010dar procession","url":"https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/giro-ditalia\/giro-ditalia-gc-analysis-is-geraint-thomas-pogacars-top-rival\/","markup":" \n \n\n\n \n\n \n \n >\", \"path\": \"https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/giro-ditalia\/giro-ditalia-gc-analysis-is-geraint-thomas-pogacars-top-rival\/\", \"listing_type\": \"recirc\", \"location\": \"list\", \"title\": \"giro d\u0027italia gc analysis: is geraint thomas the only opposition to a poga\u010dar procession\"}}\u0027>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n \n\n \n\n \n \n\n \n \n >\", \"path\": \"https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/giro-ditalia\/giro-ditalia-gc-analysis-is-geraint-thomas-pogacars-top-rival\/\", \"listing_type\": \"recirc\", \"location\": \"list\", \"title\": \"giro d\u0027italia gc analysis: is geraint thomas the only opposition to a poga\u010dar procession\"}}\u0027>\n giro d\u0027italia gc analysis: is geraint thomas the only opposition to a poga\u010dar procession\n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n "},{"title":"man arrested for firing shotgun at cyclists on a charity ride","url":"https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/news\/man-arrested-for-firing-shotgun-at-cyclists-on-a-charity-ride\/","markup":" \n \n\n\n \n\n \n \n >\", \"path\": \"https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/news\/man-arrested-for-firing-shotgun-at-cyclists-on-a-charity-ride\/\", \"listing_type\": \"recirc\", \"location\": \"list\", \"title\": \"man arrested for firing shotgun at cyclists on a charity ride\"}}\u0027>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n \n\n \n\n \n \n\n \n \n >\", \"path\": \"https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/news\/man-arrested-for-firing-shotgun-at-cyclists-on-a-charity-ride\/\", \"listing_type\": \"recirc\", \"location\": \"list\", \"title\": \"man arrested for firing shotgun at cyclists on a charity ride\"}}\u0027>\n man arrested for firing shotgun at cyclists on a charity ride\n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n "},{"title":"\u0027ride for magnus\u0027 memorial bike ride will honor magnus white and serve as rallying call","url":"https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/news\/ride-for-magnus-memorial-bike-ride-will-honor-magnus-white-and-serve-as-rallying-call\/","markup":" \n \n\n\n \n\n \n \n >\", \"path\": \"https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/news\/ride-for-magnus-memorial-bike-ride-will-honor-magnus-white-and-serve-as-rallying-call\/\", \"listing_type\": \"recirc\", \"location\": \"list\", \"title\": \"\u0027ride for magnus\u0027 memorial bike ride will honor magnus white and serve as rallying call\"}}\u0027>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n \n\n \n\n \n \n\n \n \n >\", \"path\": \"https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/news\/ride-for-magnus-memorial-bike-ride-will-honor-magnus-white-and-serve-as-rallying-call\/\", \"listing_type\": \"recirc\", \"location\": \"list\", \"title\": \"\u0027ride for magnus\u0027 memorial bike ride will honor magnus white and serve as rallying call\"}}\u0027>\n \u0027ride for magnus\u0027 memorial bike ride will honor magnus white and serve as rallying call\n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n "},{"title":"cavendish sits up in sprint marred by nasty crash, sagan kicks to 18th in road return in hungary","url":"https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/cavendish-sits-up-in-sprint-marred-by-nasty-crash-sagan-hits-deck-in-road-return-in-hungary\/","markup":" \n \n\n\n \n\n \n \n >\", \"path\": \"https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/cavendish-sits-up-in-sprint-marred-by-nasty-crash-sagan-hits-deck-in-road-return-in-hungary\/\", \"listing_type\": \"recirc\", \"location\": \"list\", \"title\": \"cavendish sits up in sprint marred by nasty crash, sagan kicks to 18th in road return in hungary\"}}\u0027>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n \n\n \n\n \n \n\n \n \n >\", \"path\": \"https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/cavendish-sits-up-in-sprint-marred-by-nasty-crash-sagan-hits-deck-in-road-return-in-hungary\/\", \"listing_type\": \"recirc\", \"location\": \"list\", \"title\": \"cavendish sits up in sprint marred by nasty crash, sagan kicks to 18th in road return in hungary\"}}\u0027>\n cavendish sits up in sprint marred by nasty crash, sagan kicks to 18th in road return in hungary\n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n "},{"title":"giro d\u0027italia results: jhonatan narv\u00e1ez foils poga\u010dar to win stage 1","url":"https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/giro-ditalia\/jhonatan-narvaez-foils-pogacar-to-win-stage-one-of-the-giro-ditalia\/","markup":" \n \n\n\n \n\n \n \n >\", \"path\": \"https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/giro-ditalia\/jhonatan-narvaez-foils-pogacar-to-win-stage-one-of-the-giro-ditalia\/\", \"listing_type\": \"recirc\", \"location\": \"list\", \"title\": \"giro d\u0027italia results: jhonatan narv\u00e1ez foils poga\u010dar to win stage 1\"}}\u0027>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n \n\n \n\n \n \n\n \n \n >\", \"path\": \"https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/giro-ditalia\/jhonatan-narvaez-foils-pogacar-to-win-stage-one-of-the-giro-ditalia\/\", \"listing_type\": \"recirc\", \"location\": \"list\", \"title\": \"giro d\u0027italia results: jhonatan narv\u00e1ez foils poga\u010dar to win stage 1\"}}\u0027>\n giro d\u0027italia results: jhonatan narv\u00e1ez foils poga\u010dar to win stage 1\n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n "},{"title":"\u2018i tried, i gave everything:\u2019 poga\u010dar mulling over missed opportunity for giro d\u2019italia stage win","url":"https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/giro-ditalia\/i-tried-i-gave-everything-pogacar-mulling-over-missed-opportunity-for-giro-ditalia-stage-win\/","markup":" \n \n\n\n \n\n \n \n >\", \"path\": \"https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/giro-ditalia\/i-tried-i-gave-everything-pogacar-mulling-over-missed-opportunity-for-giro-ditalia-stage-win\/\", \"listing_type\": \"recirc\", \"location\": \"list\", \"title\": \"\u2018i tried, i gave everything:\u2019 poga\u010dar mulling over missed opportunity for giro d\u2019italia stage win\"}}\u0027>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n \n\n \n\n \n \n\n \n \n >\", \"path\": \"https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/giro-ditalia\/i-tried-i-gave-everything-pogacar-mulling-over-missed-opportunity-for-giro-ditalia-stage-win\/\", \"listing_type\": \"recirc\", \"location\": \"list\", \"title\": \"\u2018i tried, i gave everything:\u2019 poga\u010dar mulling over missed opportunity for giro d\u2019italia stage win\"}}\u0027>\n \u2018i tried, i gave everything:\u2019 poga\u010dar mulling over missed opportunity for giro d\u2019italia stage win\n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n "},{"title":"giro d\u0027italia stage 5: benjamin thomas rules from four rider escape as breakaway stuns the sprinters","url":"https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/giro-ditalia\/giro-ditalia-stage-5-benjamin-thomas-rules-from-four-rider-escape-as-breakaway-stuns-the-sprinters\/","markup":" \n \n\n\n \n\n \n \n >\", \"path\": \"https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/giro-ditalia\/giro-ditalia-stage-5-benjamin-thomas-rules-from-four-rider-escape-as-breakaway-stuns-the-sprinters\/\", \"listing_type\": \"recirc\", \"location\": \"list\", \"title\": \"giro d\u0027italia stage 5: benjamin thomas rules from four rider escape as breakaway stuns the sprinters\"}}\u0027>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n \n\n \n\n \n \n\n \n \n >\", \"path\": \"https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/giro-ditalia\/giro-ditalia-stage-5-benjamin-thomas-rules-from-four-rider-escape-as-breakaway-stuns-the-sprinters\/\", \"listing_type\": \"recirc\", \"location\": \"list\", \"title\": \"giro d\u0027italia stage 5: benjamin thomas rules from four rider escape as breakaway stuns the sprinters\"}}\u0027>\n giro d\u0027italia stage 5: benjamin thomas rules from four rider escape as breakaway stuns the sprinters\n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n "},{"title":"5 ways to go faster (without increasing your power)","url":"https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-training\/5-ways-to-go-faster-without-increasing-your-power\/","markup":" \n \n\n\n \n\n \n \n >\", \"path\": \"https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-training\/5-ways-to-go-faster-without-increasing-your-power\/\", \"listing_type\": \"recirc\", \"location\": \"list\", \"title\": \"5 ways to go faster (without increasing your power)\"}}\u0027>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n \n\n \n\n \n \n\n \n \n >\", \"path\": \"https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-training\/5-ways-to-go-faster-without-increasing-your-power\/\", \"listing_type\": \"recirc\", \"location\": \"list\", \"title\": \"5 ways to go faster (without increasing your power)\"}}\u0027>\n 5 ways to go faster (without increasing your power)\n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n "},{"title":"the next great breakthrough cian uijtdebroeks shines early in giro d\u2019italia","url":"https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/giro-ditalia\/the-next-great-breakthrough-cian-uijtdebroeks-shines-on-stage-two-of-the-giro-ditalia\/","markup":" \n \n\n\n \n\n \n \n >\", \"path\": \"https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/giro-ditalia\/the-next-great-breakthrough-cian-uijtdebroeks-shines-on-stage-two-of-the-giro-ditalia\/\", \"listing_type\": \"recirc\", \"location\": \"list\", \"title\": \"the next great breakthrough cian uijtdebroeks shines early in giro d\u2019italia\"}}\u0027>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n \n\n \n\n \n \n\n \n \n >\", \"path\": \"https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/giro-ditalia\/the-next-great-breakthrough-cian-uijtdebroeks-shines-on-stage-two-of-the-giro-ditalia\/\", \"listing_type\": \"recirc\", \"location\": \"list\", \"title\": \"the next great breakthrough cian uijtdebroeks shines early in giro d\u2019italia\"}}\u0027>\n the next great breakthrough cian uijtdebroeks shines early in giro d\u2019italia\n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n "},{"title":"red bull to debut at tour de france but don\u0027t expect spending spree: \u0027our goal is not to sign riders who\u0027ve already won the tour\u0027","url":"https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/red-bull-to-debut-at-tour-de-france-but-dont-expect-spending-spree-our-goal-is-not-to-sign-riders-whove-already-won-the-tour\/","markup":" \n \n\n\n \n\n \n \n >\", \"path\": \"https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/red-bull-to-debut-at-tour-de-france-but-dont-expect-spending-spree-our-goal-is-not-to-sign-riders-whove-already-won-the-tour\/\", \"listing_type\": \"recirc\", \"location\": \"list\", \"title\": \"red bull to debut at tour de france but don\u0027t expect spending spree: \u0027our goal is not to sign riders who\u0027ve already won the tour\u0027\"}}\u0027>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n \n\n \n\n \n \n\n \n \n >\", \"path\": \"https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/red-bull-to-debut-at-tour-de-france-but-dont-expect-spending-spree-our-goal-is-not-to-sign-riders-whove-already-won-the-tour\/\", \"listing_type\": \"recirc\", \"location\": \"list\", \"title\": \"red bull to debut at tour de france but don\u0027t expect spending spree: \u0027our goal is not to sign riders who\u0027ve already won the tour\u0027\"}}\u0027>\n red bull to debut at tour de france but don\u0027t expect spending spree: \u0027our goal is not to sign riders who\u0027ve already won the tour\u0027\n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n "},{"title":"review: the merlin sandstone 40 is forward looking with timeless style","url":"https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/gravel\/gravel-gear\/review-merlin-sandstone-40-xlg-titanium-all-road-bike\/","markup":" \n \n\n\n \n\n \n \n >\", \"path\": \"https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/gravel\/gravel-gear\/review-merlin-sandstone-40-xlg-titanium-all-road-bike\/\", \"listing_type\": \"recirc\", \"location\": \"list\", \"title\": \"review: the merlin sandstone 40 is forward looking with timeless style\"}}\u0027>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n \n\n \n\n \n \n\n \n \n >\", \"path\": \"https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/gravel\/gravel-gear\/review-merlin-sandstone-40-xlg-titanium-all-road-bike\/\", \"listing_type\": \"recirc\", \"location\": \"list\", \"title\": \"review: the merlin sandstone 40 is forward looking with timeless style\"}}\u0027>\n review: the merlin sandstone 40 is forward looking with timeless style\n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n "}]' > >", "name": "footer-menu", "type": "link"}}'>advertise >", "name": "footer-menu", "type": "link"}}'>privacy policy >", "name": "footer-menu", "type": "link"}}'>contact >", "name": "footer-menu", "type": "link"}}'>careers >", "name": "footer-menu", "type": "link"}}'>terms of use >", 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CyclingTips Digest: Podium Girls, Tour de France, Fantasy Leagues, & More

Cool Features

Is this the ultimate Tour de France fantasy team from the last decade?

As 2019 comes to an end, we build a squad of heroes from the last 10 years

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Probably the toughest job for any pro cycling team boss is putting together the perfect selection of talent for the biggest race of the year, the Tour de France.

Squad selection for the Tour is a tightrope walk, as management balance the demands of the sponsors, the compulsion to win, rider injuries, form and personalities, as well as the budget limitations of signing riders you might want to carry you to the top step.

While some team managers hedge their bets, choosing to back a sprinter and a GC hopeful (looking at you Jumbo-Visma), others go all-in for the yellow jersey with either one, two, or even three leaders.

But if we were to throw out all the rules and restrictions, ignore the budget and the personalities, and choose purely on Tour de France talent from the last decade, who would make the list?

Well if we were given free reign, here is what our fantasy eight-rider Tour de France squad would look like.

Thank god we don’t have to manage this lot.

The GC leader – Chris Froome

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While there are a handful of riders you would love to have as general classification leader on your team, there is an obvious choice that stands out above the rest.

Chris Froome is the most successful Tour de France rider of the last decade and arguably among the greatest in cycling history.

With seven three-week titles to his name, including four Tours de France, there is no one from the last 10 years more consistent on the biggest stage, making him the clear choice for leader of the fantasy eight.

Mountain domestique/back up leader – Vincenzo Nibali

The choice for an ultra-domestique and back up general classification leader is between two riders in my view – Alberto Contador and Vincenzo Nibali.

Contador sits level with Froome on seven Grand Tour wins, with two Tours de France, two editions of the Giro d’Italia and three red jerseys from the Vuelta a España.

But Contador’s golden years were before the last decade, when he won both his Tours and one each of the Vuelta and Giro between 2007 and 2009.

His last Grand Tour podium was his victory in the 2015 Giro and he retired before the end of the decade.

Vincenzo Nibali continues to build his already remarkable legacy at 35 years old.

The Italian has may have fewer Grand Tour victories than Froome or Contador, but his ongoing success make him the top pick for my fantasy squad.

All of Nibali’s three-week victories come from the last 10 years – two editions of the Giro, two Vuelta and one Tour.

He is a regular Grand Tour podium finisher, most recently finishing 2 nd in the 2019 Giro, and has added Milan-San Remo and Il Lombardia to his palmarès in recent seasons, which is an added bonus.

Although good luck asking a champion like Nibali to support another rider in a Grand Tour.

Sprinter – Mark Cavendish

Now for choice of sprinter in the fantasy team, again there is a clear favourite.

While arguments could easily be made for the German powerhouses André Greipel or Marcel Kittel, there is one rider who has to be included based on the sheer number of Tour de France stage victories in the last 10 years.

Mark Cavendish may have started his almost-unparrallelled winning streak back in 2008, but more than half of his 30 Tour de France stages have come since the turn of the last decade.

Since 2010, the ‘Manx Missile’ has won 20 Tour stages, while Greipel has won 11 in his career, Kittel 14.

Of course Cavendish hasn’t reached his former heights in recent seasons, but as the second most successful Tour de France stage winner in history, only four behind the legendary Eddy Merckx, not including him would be a crime.

Lead-out rider – Mark Renshaw

Every great sprinter needs a rider and friend they can trust to deliver them at the perfect moment to fight for victory, and there is none better than the legendary Mark Renshaw.

The Australian played a huge role in the success of his long-time friend Cavendish before his retirement this year.

Cavendish  and Renshaw first teamed up in 2009 at Columbia-HTC and have had phenomenal success together, with Renshaw contributing to 19 of the Brit’s 30  Tour de France  stage wins.

Renshaw said one of his fondest memories was finishing second to team-mate Cavendish on the Champs-Élysées on the final day of the 2009 Tour de France.

Time trial specialist – Tony Martin

This was a tough selection between two era-defining TT specialists, but I’ve opted for Tony Martin.

The other choice was the also outstanding Fabian Cancellara.

On paper, Swiss rider Cancellara has more career wins – 86 to Martin’s 66 – and of course has a slew of glorious victories in the Classics, most notably three Tours of Flanders and three Paris-Roubaix.

However, when narrowing down results purely to the last 10 years, for me, Martin has to be the choice for the squad.

All of the German’s four World Championship time trial victories happened after 2010, while Cancellara’s last of four Worlds wins was in 2010.

Martin also has more Tour de France victories from the last decade – five to Cancellara’s three.

However, Cancellara did close out his career with his second career gold medal at the Olympics in 2016, which is a huge result to have as your last ever competitive race.

The clinching factor however is longevity, as Cancellera retired part way through 2016 while Martin will close out the decade still racing at 34, as a faithful road captain and workhorse for Jumbo-Visma.

But I wouldn’t begrudge anyone who swapped Martin for Cancellara.

The breakaway specialist – Tommy Voeckler

Another tough choice here between to stars of the stage escape, but I’ve gone for the legendary Tommy Voeckler.

With 43 career wins to his name, Voeckler was one of the unsung heroes of the cycling world before his retirement in 2017 – the kind of rider who slowly cultivated his palmarès with prestigious wins through experience and opportunism.

With three Tour de France stage victories from the last decade, he is slightly ahead of the other heroic breakaway rider, Thomas De Gendt, who has also built up some phenomenal victories sporadically.

But the clincher for Voeckler is his performance in the 2011 Tour de France, when he led the race for 10 days and came within a handful of stages of winning the yellow jersey in what would have been a huge upset.

Voeckler may have slipped back to fourth with three stages to race, but his exploits live on in history.

All rounder – Peter Sagan

No Tour de France roster is complete without an all-rounder to pick up results when things get unpredictable and Peter Sagan is the ultimate in that mould.

The Slovakian started winning in 2010 and has barely stopped since, taking 14 Tour de France stage wins since his first in 2012.

While Sagan’s versatility him a strong contender for any Tour squad, the factor that guarantees his inclusion in the team is his rockstar status.

Sagan has a reputation as an entertainer, whether it be in the race with his exciting attacking style of racing, or his one-handed wheelies and infamous finish line celebrations, the former three-time world champion is a crowd pleaser, a rider that will definitely keep the sponsors happy while racking up wins along the way.

Road captain – Luke Rowe

Luke Rowe at the 2018 Tour de France (Sunada)

Team Ineos road captain Luke Rowe may have only ridden his first Tour de France in 2015, but the Welshman has built up a reputation as a formidable tactician despite being only 29 years old.

Rowe’s understanding of bike racing has been matched by few others in the professional peloton in the last 10 years, as shown by his control in the 2019 Paris-Nice when he helped split the race and taught rising star Egan Bernal a few things while he did it.

Also a Classics specialist, Rowe is an essential asset when things get tight and technical, successfully steering his team through the Tour de France to victory in the last five editions.

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Alex Ballinger is editor of BikeBiz magazine, the leading publication for the UK cycle industry, and is the former digital news editor for CyclingWeekly.com. After gaining experience in local newsrooms, national newspapers and in digital journalism, Alex found his calling in cycling, first as a reporter, then as news editor responsible for Cycling Weekly's online news output, and now as the editor of BikeBiz. Since pro cycling first captured his heart during the 2010 Tour de France (specifically the Contador-Schleck battle) Alex covered three Tours de France, multiple editions of the Tour of Britain, and the World Championships, while both writing and video presenting for Cycling Weekly. He also specialises in fitness writing, often throwing himself into the deep end to help readers improve their own power numbers.  Away from the desk, Alex can be found racing time trials, riding BMX and mountain bikes, or exploring off-road on his gravel bike. He’s also an avid gamer, and can usually be found buried in an eclectic selection of books.

Magnus White, 17, was struck and killed by a driver while on a training ride in Boulder, Colorado, last year

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How to pick the best Tour de France fantasy team – CyclingTips

July is upon us, and that means the Tour de France is nearly here. It also means the Fantasy Tour de France game is here, and if there’s one thing that makes watching sports even more fun, it’s watching them while you root for guys who compete on a fake team you put together.

I’m here to help you put together the best fake team you can.

You’re probably wondering why you should listen to a real-life cycling journalist when it comes to matters of fantasy sports. You may be surprised to know that before I was covering bike races, I was watching them from afar as a connoisseur of fantasy cycling. On my palmares, you’ll find a global top 10 overall finish in the Velogames Tour de France (RIP), and a few victories in other fantasy cycling competitions.

I haven’t secured a real maillot jaune, but I did win a long-sleeve jersey once as a prize for fantasy cycling. I’m like a fantasy Bauke Mollema—no blasting off the front like Chris Froome, but I’m always there or thereabouts. Lately, I’m starting to focus more on helping others.

In this case, that’s you. Here’s your guide to rocking the 2019 Tour de France Fantasy game.

Bauke Mollema at the Giro d’Italia. Photo: ©kramon

The way the Fantasy Tour de France game works should be relatively familiar to anyone who has played Velogames. If you have, you can skip this section (and you can also shed a tear for the Velogames Tour de France, which was shut down by the ASO when it launched its own fantasy game) and just read the official rules for the full rundown of all the important scoring stuff and the transfer process .

For those who aren’t versed in Velogames, the idea is to select a roster of riders who score fantasy points for you over the course of the race by getting real-life results, like winning stages or wearing jerseys. You have a budget, and riders are assigned a cost, so you must be judicious in how to spend your assets.

Eight roster slots, 120 stars to spend.

In the Fantasy Tour de France game, you have eight roster slots, and your budget comes in the form of “stars.” You have 120 stars. Riders like Geraint Thomas and Peter Sagan cost more stars to put in your team than, say, domestiques on Pro Continental teams.

Crucially, you have the ability to transfer riders in and out during the race a limited number of times. Each transfer costs 50 “credits,” and you start with 400 credits. However, you are apparently able to rack up a few more credits by getting your friends to play — which is pretty lame if you ask me. The way I see it, you shouldn’t need real friends to succeed in this fantasy world.

Riders on your team score points over the ensuing stages based on a scoring rubric. For instance, a stage win is 200 points, a day in yellow is 50. Each day, you appoint a road captain, who scores double points for his stage results that day. On the final stage of the race, the classification-based points earned by any rider are multiplied by five to reward them for their final positions in those rankings.

That’s most of what you need to know, although I would highly recommend reading the rules for the full breakdown of scoring plus some nuances and fine print.

Core Strategy

This is probably what you’re really here for so let’s get to it.

Success in fantasy cycling is all about identifying value — spending less of your budget to earn more points. Familiarizing yourself with the scoring system is a critical starting point.

This particular game awards perhaps fewer points than you’d expect to yellow jersey contenders when it comes to the final standings. With that in mind, you may want to prioritize stage-hunters – sprinters and puncheurs alike – more than you otherwise might. The ability to select a road captain, doubling your stage points, boosts stage winners even more.

That said, you can expect certain familiar faces to do well in the various classifications, so relying on points from the consistent contenders for the various jerseys might be a bit more lower-risk than trying to pick individual stage winners.

My advice? Embrace the balance. The highest scorers will be riders who consistently finish highly on stages,  and also routinely get ahead in a jersey battle. That includes the green and mountains jerseys—they’re worth a fair few points, more than you might expect. If a rider seems like the kind of guy who could win the whacky combination classification at the Vuelta a España, he’s a good choice.

Alejandro Valverde has won the Vuelta combination jersey three times. Keep him in mind.

Once you have a grasp of the points structure, it’s all about picking the riders you think will give you the best return on investment. If you’re not great at predicting stage winners, check the bookmakers’ odds. The bookies’ favorite won’t always win, but looking at the top few names favored for a specific result is a darn good way to confirm you’re on the right track. Out-of-the-blue winners are very, very rare, except on breakaway days.

Using your transfers efficiently is the other key aspect of lineup management. Remember, you have the ability to shuffle your lineup a limited number of times.

Five Big Tips

1. Study the stages well in advance . It helps to know how many sprinters’ stages await before you decide on how many sprinters you want. Ditto for puncheurs, rouleurs, etc. This is a pretty climber-friendly Tour, so keep that in mind. TT-only guys won’t win you many points. As usual, however, the climbing stages mostly come later, so keep that in mind too.

2. Plan your transfers . This is a big one, particularly if you’re used to fantasy cycling games that don’t have transfers. Maybe save a few transfers to account for injuries, but plan to swap riders in ahead of extended stretches of stages with similar profiles. In other words, feel free to start with sprinters and puncheurs in your lineup for the first block of stages. If you followed that last tip, you’ll know that there are plenty of stagehunter-friendly days in the early goings. You can load up on climbers in the middle of the second week when the race hits the mountains.

3. Beware overpriced veterans . I’d love to end up eating my words here because he came so close to that 2016 Giro d’Italia win, but Steven Kruijswijk sure looks expensive considering he costs almost as much at 18 as Peter Sagan at 20. Kruijswijk is a consistent top 10 type but not much of a stage winner; Sagan, for two points more, is a fantasy cycling machine. Even if Kruijswijk wins the Tour, you will have picked him up by then.

Picking with your heart may be the easiest route, but it might not yield the best results. An all-Dutch team could be fun if you’re from the Netherlands, but it probably wouldn’t be the most successful.

4.  Acquaint yourself with the plans of riders’ real-life teams . Simon Yates is a proven Grand Tour rider, but he’s ostensibly a domestique at this race for his brother Adam Yates according to Mitchelton-Scott. Could those plans change? Sure. Will I gamble 19 stars on him when I could spend them elsewhere? No way. Plus, you can always transfer him in later.

5. Find the hidden gems . Low-cost, high-return athletes are the bedrock of a fantasy sports team. Up-and-comers often fit the bill. Kasper Asgreen, making his Tour debut, comes to mind. You’ll need a few, because you won’t have the budget for a team full of  yellow jersey contenders—which is the way it works in real life too. Unless you’re Ineos.

Naming Names

I won’t weigh on all 170-something Tour starters, but I’ll give you at least a handful of other names that stand out to me as good values like Asgreen , or less attractive options like Kruijswijk .

I’ve mentioned Sagan and Valverde , but it’s worth reiterating how valuable I think they’ll be despite their relatively high costs. A typical Sagan performance should put him on par with the winner of the Tour de France in the points department, and the guy is pretty darn consistent, so 20 stars seems like a decent price to pay. Valverde is a bigger risk because of Movistar’s whacky leadership situation, but the potential reward is great—he could very well end up in the GC battle, as well as constantly finishing highly on stages.

Michael Matthews (18 stars) is cheaper than plenty of other big names, and his versatility should translate to plenty of points. Plus, he should be riding with a smile on his face, having secured a two-year extension with Sunweb this week.

Michael Matthews wins stage 2 of the Volta a Catalunya. Photo: Luis Gomez/Cor Vos © 2019

Fabio Aru  is a special case. He only costs 10 stars. As he works his way back to form following surgery, he’s a great candidate for a mid-race transfer. If he looks healthy and fit, bring him aboard for the mountains.

As for riders I’m avoiding,  Mikel Landa  comes to mind. Coming off the Giro, I don’t expect Landa to be terribly fresh, so I’d rather spend those 19 stars on, say, Elia Viviani , who seems very likely to shine in the first few stages. I can always bring in Landa later if he proves me wrong.

Thibaut Pinot  looks very expensive at 20 stars. For the same amount, you can get the guy hunting a record green jersey. Pinot’s inconsistency is not what I want for that cost

Michal Kwiatkowski is another rider I’m not in love with for this specific game. He’s one of cycling’s most versatile riders and can therefore be a fantasy monster under the right circumstances, but for the Tour, he’s a super-domestique that costs a whopping 16 stars. If Bernal, Thomas, and Wout Poels crash out, pick him up. Otherwise, pass.

Hopefully that’s enough to get you started on the road to strong Tour de France Fantasy lineup. I could maybe spend more time telling you which riders I like and which I don’t but I would rather put together my own team.

Fantasy cycling is a great way to keep yourself invested in every single stage of the race. Even if none of your favorite guys are going to do anything on a given day, someone of your fantasy roster might, and that makes it more compelling to watch whether they score points for you or not. The real goal here is to have some fun, so hopefully you’re able to do that even if your picks don’t all turn out.

Of course, it’s even more fun to win, so be sure to get your friends to join you in your league, and then crush them with your fake team.

Who are you picking, and why?

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Tour de France Fantasy by Tissot

Tour de France 2023 - prediction points classification

Tuesday 27 June 2023 • Previews

Who will win the points GC in the Tour de France 2023 according to the computer? Or: who will be the main favourites to win the green jersey?  In 2022, Wout van Aert , dominated the points GC by winning more than double points to #2. Wout said he won't compete for green in 2023. He wants to win stages. If van Aert will not be in contention for the green jersey in intermediate sprints,  Jasper Philipsen is the big favourite to win it. Philipsen is climbing very well and gets his leadout from  Van der Poel . He proved to be the fastest sprinter of the pro-peloton.

Point scales in Tour de France 2023:

Maximum number of points: 50 – 30 – 20 – 18 – 16 – 14 – 12 – 10 – 8 – 7 – 6 – 5 – 4 – 3 – 2

Average number of points: 30 – 25 – 22 – 19 – 17 – 15 – 13 – 11 – 9 – 7 – 6 – 5 – 4 – 3 – 2

Lowest number of points: 20 – 17 – 15 – 13 – 11 – 10 – 9 – 8 – 7 – 6 – 5 – 4 – 3 – 2 – 1

Points in intermediates: 20 – 17 – 15 – 13 – 11 – 10 – 9 – 8 – 7 – 6 – 5 – 4 – 3 – 2 – 1 

Next to our computer-prediciton, we would like to point at the Head-2-Head functionality at our website. It allows you to compare 5 riders at the same time. You can find the H2H between Jasper Philipsen and Wout van Aert here.  Very useful to find your fantasy-game tips.   Here you can find all Tour de France participants  which you can sort based on their indicator-scores.

Tour de France 2023 - Prediction Points GC

Computer prediction 💻, Expected Win (xW):

🦄 Biniam Girmay

*The unicorn is our joker, nice old-fashioned based on feeling

Tour de France 2023 - prediction Points GC

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Tips for the Fantasy Giro d'Italia 2024

With the Giro d'Italia just around the corner, it's puzzle time for many Fantasy Sports Fans. Everyone is looking for the ideal picks for their Fantasy team. In the Fantasy Giro Italia (Budget) the top 20 of each stage and the final classification score points. You also choose 5 substitutes who will step in as soon as a rider drops out of the Giro d'Italia. So it's just one entry and then 3 weeks of enjoying the tour and the game.

Cycling UpToDate, credits to wielrennenuptodate.nl , provides 10 tips based on Zweeler's budget game. All this knowledge is of course invaluable for the avid cycling Fantasy Sports Games fan who participates in several games during the Giro. Go directly to the Fantasy Giro d'Italia to take a look. The game is not free and costs 25 euros per team. First prize is 1,000 euros with a total prize pool of 6,000 euros!

Fantasy Giro d'Italia (Budget) At least 9270 USD/8,600 Euro/7,350 GBP in prizes!

1) Florian Lipowitz - 3.4 million. The 23-year-old German from Bora-hansgrohe broke through last Tour de Romandie almost in the queen stage and a place on the final podium. Whether Lipowitz can show the same in his first Grand Tour is a big question, but for 3.4 million this is a risk-free choice. Even if a general classification is not in the cards, Lipowitz can score enough points for his value in stages with his climbing skills.

2) Jonathan Milan - 22.2 million. A year ago, Milan was one of the bargains in Zweeler's budget game, despite him often starting sprints in a bad position. His price has since risen considerably, but we have high hopes for the Italian powerhouse. Milan has possibly the best sprint train and if he is delivered up front it will be hard for any sprinter to beat him.

Play along with our Fantasy Giro d'Italia (At least 8000 USD/7,500 Euro/6,450 GBP in prizes!)

3) Juan Pedro López - 11.8 million. In addition to Milan, Lidl-Trek has another potential top scorer this Giro. Juan Pedro López won the final classification of one of the preparation races, namely the Tour of the Alps. 'El Patron' lived up to his nickname, controlling attacks from strong men like Ben O'Connor and Romain Bardet. Lopez also shined once before in the Giro. In 2022, he finished second on Etna and then wore the pink jersey for 10 days.

4) Laurence Pithie - 15.8 million. Pithie's career is moving fast. The 21-year-old New Zealander is perhaps the revelation of this cycling season. With a first WorldTour victory in Australia and riding at the front in the top classics, Pithie is not likely to win a bunch sprint against a Tim Merlier or Olav Kooij, but he has the advantage of being one of the best puncheurs. And especially for breakaway riders, there are plenty of opportunities in this Giro which he could take advantage of.

PREVIEW | Giro d'Italia 2024 - Tadej Pogacar the big star of the season's first Grand Tour

5) Tobias Lund Andresen - 8.1 million. For the same reason, we can also commend Tobias Lund Andresen. The young Dane is Fabio Jakobsen's leadout man, but Jakobsen is widely known to have difficulty overcoming the climbs. So there is a very good chance that Jakobsen will get a maximum of four sprint opportunities, leaving plenty of stages for Lund Andresen to score. At least in the Tour of Turkey he impressed by winning three stages, so the form is good.

6) Danny van Poppel - 8.8 million. Van Poppel is one of the best leadouts in the peloton, but will have to play the role of sprinter himself in the next three weeks. Originally Sam Welsford was designated as Bora's sprinter, but the Australian was kept out of the selection due to disappointing form. Van Poppel, on the other hand, has shown good legs in recent months and should be able to score a lot of top five finishes.

Profiles & Route Giro d'Italia 2024 - 71Km of time-trial; Gravel; Stelvio and double Grappa ascent included

7) Giulio Pellizzari - 4.7 million. Italy is yearning for a new star to win the Giro d'Italia. Perhaps Pellizzari will become just that in the future. Last year he competed with Isaac Del Toro for overall victory in the Tour de l'Avenir. This race can be seen as the Tour de France for U23s. In the run-up to this Giro, he showed himself with a second place in the third stage of the Tour of the Alps, behind the previously mentioned Lopez. What is good comes fast, especially in today's cycling where talent after talent breaks through.

8) Jan Hirt - 7.7 million. Soudal - Quick-Step starts this Giro without a real leader for the GC, but Hirt clearly has the potential to finish high. In 2022 he already finished sixth with a strong final week including a stage win. And also this edition the final week is especially important for the GC. Hirt started 2024 strongly with a second place in Oman and then worked as a domestique for his teammates in the UAE Tour and Catalunya. So don't pay too much attention to the results in these recent races.

Final startlist Giro d'Italia 2024 with Tadej Pogacar, Geraint Thomas, Filippo Ganna, Biniam Girmay, Nairo Quintana, Julian Alaphilippe and Tim Merlier

9) Georg Steinhauser - 2.6 million. Steinhauser is one of the lesser known names in the peloton right now, but that may not last long. EF is starting a free-rider team where chasing stages via breakaways is the main goal. Steinhauser fits perfectly into that picture. The 22-year-old German has a nose for the right breakaway and has good climbing legs. Steinhauser is the son of former pro Tobias and the nephew of none other than Jan Ullrich.

10) Manuel Tarozzi - 1.3 million. In budget games, it is normal to look for cheap filler to round out the team. Tarozzi fits into that category. A rookie in the Giro who has often shown himself at the front this year. Six times he has been in an early breakaway and once with results. Early in the season he did a 1-2 with teammate Alessandro Tonelli in Valencia. One good breakaway in the next three weeks is enough to make Tarozzi profitable.

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Thu 09 May 2024

Fri 10 May 2024

The Dos and Don’ts of Sprint Cycling

Perfect your sprint form by learning what to do—and what not to do—when turning your speed all the way up.

“It’s a rush to go fast,” says Trevor Raab, Bicycling ’s senior photographer who races cyclocross as a Cat 1. “In a race scenario it’s one of the biggest ‘highs’ you can get on a bike.”

For other riders, the sheer physicality and limit-pushing nature of sprinting is what they love most. “My favorite thing about sprinting is the feeling of going as fast as you physically can,” says Ashley Weaver, who rides for the U.S.-based pro cycling team LA Sweat .

Something to keep in mind when you’re first starting out with your sprints is that it truly is a skill that requires a focused practice and some dedication. Another thing to remember is that everyone was a beginner once. A perfect sprint isn’t something cyclists just automatically know how to do right out of the gate; it’s something that’s developed over time through consistency.

To help you zero in on this skill, we’ve compiled some of the crucial dos and don’ts of sprint cycling for riders who are learning sprint form for the first time and/or those who want to polish their sprint technique.

1. Do Learn to Ride Out of the Saddle and in the Drops

Riding in the drops (the lower, curved part of a road handlebar) puts you in a more aerodynamic and stable position when you’re going for maximum speed. So it’s crucial to get comfortable shifting and braking while in the drops. It may feel a little awkward at first if it’s new to you, but all it takes is practice for it to feel like second nature.

The next component to learn is how to rock your bike side to side while riding out of the saddle, as this allows you to deliver as much power as possible to each pedal stroke .

“When we lean the bike over, it’s to help with leverage on the side of the bike where you’re producing power,” Pan American Games gold medalist and cycling coach, Daniel Holloway explains.

While sprinting out of the saddle, the idea is to lean the bike (not your body) in the direction opposite your downstroke. This means that if you’re pushing down on the pedal on the left, you should lean your bike toward the right. The bike will be leaning in the opposite direction from the straight leg and in the direction of the leg at the top of the pedal stroke.

Create tension and stability while you do this by pulling on the handlebars , essentially using your bike as leverage. “Think about bringing the handlebars to your waist while pushing down on whichever is the forward leg,” says Holloway. “Then your foot’s coming over the top into the power and you’re going to pull the bike and push against the pedal and pull the handlebar towards you,” Holloway says.

2. Don’t Neglect Your Upper Body

Solid sprint form very much involves the upper body and core muscles , as well as the lower body. That means building strength in these areas is crucial to being able to ride powerfully. “Your core should be engaged [while sprinting]. Your shoulders should be engaged. And then there will be the natural inclination to start to rock [the bike],” Holloway says.

A strong upper body and core is also essential to the balance you need to shift your weight when you’re out of the saddle. Where you center your bodyweight will affect how you handle your bike, and Weaver recommends keeping your bodyweight and center of gravity shifted back over the bottom bracket .

“I struggled with repeatedly picking my back wheel up off the ground while I was sprinting,” she says, before she learned the importance of shifting weight back.

3. Do Shift Into the Right Gear

While starting with a heavy load when you’re first learning a move might seem counterintuitive—we often hear that we should master an exercise or technique before adding resistance—when it comes to learning how to sprint the opposite is true. Practicing in a harder gear, and therefore with heavier resistance to push against, will make the process of learning sprint form easier to practice.

“When you learn weightlifting form , you start light because you don’t want to injure yourself. But you also have to have some weight so you can feel the tension throughout the whole movement,” Holloway says. It’s the same with sprinting. “You’re going to be better off learning in a bigger gear and just practicing standing up and neurologically learning what it’s going to feel like under load.”

Noticing what your whole body does while sprinting and how everything works together synergistically is also part of the learning process. It’s easier to be mindful of those important subtleties when you’re working against resistance.

As for when you first start your sprint in something like a race setting, make sure you’re in the big ring in the front before you come out of the saddle. Any gear changes you make during the actual sprint should be happening in the rear, and it’s important not to push too heavy a gear too soon.

“A big tip is to start in an easier gear than you think you should,” Raab says. “Lots of people overgear when they’re trying to spin up.”

4. Do Practice, Practice, Practice

It’s impossible to overstate the importance of practicing your sprinting skills on a regular basis, and it’s not just about getting faster . A lot of the technical nuances of developing a good sprint are learned through firsthand experience, and then mastered by practicing enough for them to become muscle memory and feel automatic.

“Just like when you go pick up a 45-pound dumbbell. You’re going to set up your form, plant your feet right, and then as soon as you add tension, the neural pathway engages everything that needs to be engaged to get that weight off the ground. We’re doing the same thing, but on the bike,” Holloway says.

Dan Chabonov, Bicycling ’s gear editor and former pro racer, says that practice is his biggest actionable tip for anyone learning how to sprint in cycling.

“I think the ‘genetic’ component of being a good sprinter is entirely overblown, especially for new riders,” he says. “It’s not zero, but practicing the actual mechanics of a sprint like timing your jump, knowing what gear to be in, and knowing when to shift are so much more important. These are things you only learn by doing a lot of practice sprints.”

The Easton Twilight Crit , happening on May, 25, 2024, is literally outside our front door here at Bicycling HQ in Pennsylvania. So we created an opportunity for a member to train with us for eight weeks—with the help of Pan American Games gold medalist and cycling coach, Daniel Holloway, as well as editors—and then race the Easton Twilight Crit. Yasmin Boakye answered the call. Boakye has been cycling for three years, and was ready to take on her next cycling milestone: crit racing. She will be following an individualized plan with Holloway similar to the crit training plan he designed for Bicycling readers.

5. Don’t Skip Training Sprints Outdoors

It’s possible to build a lot of the fitness needed to be a strong sprinter riding on an indoor trainer , and a lot of newer riders are more comfortable going all-out in a controlled environment instead of out on the road while they’re learning. However, it’s impossible to fully master sprints without practicing outdoors where your bike can rock side to side the way it should. And becoming comfortable with the side-to-side rocking movement of the bike when you’re out of the saddle is often one of the trickier things to learn.

“With sprinting, if you were to do it out of the saddle on the trainer, your bike is fixed. So trying to rock the bike is not possible,” Holloway says. “The body feels funky because you’re on a stationary thing and you’re only moving your body when ideally, you and your bike are [moving as] one.”

Finding the ideal place to train sprints outside is equally important for performance as it is for safety, and it’s best to avoid busy roads. “Find a safe stretch of road to practice on or an empty parking lot,” Raab says.

Once you’ve become comfortable with sprint form on a flat road, find a safe downhill and start practicing sprinting at higher speeds.

“Find a slightly downhill stretch of road or a downhill that goes into a flat where you can actually sprint at the speed you might be in a race,” Chabonov says. “Sprinting from 18 mph is much different than sprinting from 28 mph.”

6. Do Add Sprints to Your Everyday Rides

Sprint training doesn’t only have to take place within specific drills or workouts . Throwing sprints into your everyday rides is not only fun, it will help keep your skills and strength sharp. So much of sprint form is learned muscle memory, and as the adage goes: Use it or lose it.

“Sprint for town line signs on rides,” Chabonov recommends. “It’s fun and you can do it almost anywhere on any ride at any time. Include a sprint to finish your intervals . One way to do this would be to sprint for the last 10 seconds during 60-second intervals.”

Practicing your sprints with friends also comes with the added benefit of having someone to practice sprinting against, which can do wonders when working on getting faster too, according to Weaver.

7. Don’t Skimp on Strength Training

While practicing sprints in cycling and riding out of the saddle, you’ll also be able to identify areas where you’re weak, such as your upper body or core, and make the necessary tweaks to your strength-training routine to strengthen them. Doing so will make sprint form feel more fluid.

Weaver says one of the things that improved her sprint the most was a strength-training program . Slowing down and lifting weights is an integral part of developing good form on the bike in general, but this is especially true when aiming to build explosive power and perfect your out-of-the-saddle riding form.

Focus on total-body workouts in your strength plan , working not just your upper and lower body, but also your core. Incorporating plyometric moves like box jumps, skaters, burpees or lunge jumps will improve your muscular power on the bike, which will get you stronger for sprinting.

Don’t neglect to add exercises that improve your balance, too, such single-leg exercises and moves that incorporate a Bosu Ball or stability ball .

Natascha Grief is Bicycling’s Health & Fitness Editor. She started out as a bike mechanic,earning a couple pro-mechanic certifications and her USA Cycling Race Mechanics license. Then, she became obsessed with framebuilding and landed an apprenticeship with framebuilder Brent Steelman in her hometown of Redwood City, California. After that, she spent several years working for both large and not-so-large cycling brands before switching gears to become a NASM certified personal trainer, specializing in corrective exercise and body positive personal training. She honed her skills as a trainer and coach for over a decade before launching Inner Shift Fitness . During 2020, she began contributing regularly to Runner’s World and Bicycling as a freelance writer. She joined the editorial staff of Bicycling in 2022.

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Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire: Jonny DeLuca leads intriguing pickups

If you have fantasy needs, we have solutions to fit any budget. Don't let these deals pass you by!

Let's begin with a pair of starting pitchers you maybe should have added last week ...

Christian Scott , P, New York Mets (37%)

Whatever your expectations might have been for Scott’s MLB debut over the weekend, he surely met or exceeded them. The 24-year-old right-hander went 6.2 innings, allowing five hits, one walk and one run while striking out six. He was an absolute bat-missing machine:

Christian Scott generated 18 Whiffs in his fantastic MLB debut Here are all of them: pic.twitter.com/kTQG6qa5fz — Thomas Nestico (@TJStats) May 5, 2024

Scott’s sweeper-slider-fastball arsenal is clearly gonna play. He struck out 107 batters in 87.2 minor league innings last season while producing a WHIP of 0.86, so we knew he’d pile up Ks. His next start will be against the Braves , which isn’t ideal, but don’t hesitate to add him. Scott’s fantasy upside is significant.

Reese Olson , SP, Detroit Tigers (24% rostered)

It’s been a struggle in the run-support department for the winless Olson, but he’s definitely held up his end of the bargain. Olson has allowed just four runs over his last four starts while striking out 25 batters over 23.1 innings. He tossed 5.0 scoreless frames against the Yankees last Friday, so it’s not as if he’s simply taking advantage of friendly matchups. Olson will carry a 2.70 ERA and 1.23 WHIP into Wednesday’s start at Cleveland . Last year, at 23, he struck out 103 batters in 103.2 major league innings, so his stuff is legit.

Jeff Hoffman , RP, Philadelphia Phillies (22%)

Every so often, we like to remind you that Yahoo rotisserie leagues involve an innings cap, which means you need to prioritize strikeout rate more than total Ks. Elite relievers are kind of a cheat code in our game.

Hoffman has been absolutely lights-out thus far, having delivered a 1.13 ERA and 0.94 WHIP in 16.0 innings, striking out 24 batters while being credited with two wins and two saves. He continues to be awesome, just like last year. Hoffman is the sort of upper-tier RP who can assist you in a non-closing role.

Jonny DeLuca , OF, Tampa Bay Rays (20%)

DeLuca is a former Dodgers prospect who joined the Rays via the Tyler Glasnow trade, but his 2024 debut was delayed after he suffered a broken hand in the spring. He’s been scorching hot since returning to the majors, delivering two steals, a walk-off triple and a bomb over his first five games. He has multiple hits in three straight.

Jonny DeLuca hits his first home run of the season. The Rays are batting .200 on pitches out of the zone this season, best in MLB; League Avg: .157. #RaysUp pic.twitter.com/Xot1e8ssHs — Inside Edge (@IE_MLB) May 7, 2024

DeLuca has been a 20/20 guy in the minors, so he offers plenty of fantasy appeal. The team also hasn’t lost a game since he reentered the mix, although the Mets and White Sox have been the opponents, so, um … *shrug* .

T.J. Friedl, OF, Cincinnati Reds (49%)

Friedl’s return from the IL was desperately needed by a lifeless Reds lineup. He was reinserted at the top of the order on Tuesday after missing the opening weeks with a fractured wrist. In his absence, Cincinnati was hitting .210/.289/.356 as a team. Last year, Friedl of course hit for average (.279) with excellent power and speed (18/27), so he deserves a spot somewhere in the shallowest mixed leagues. Don’t leave him unattached.

Mitch Garver , C, Seattle Mariners (37%)

It was a struggle early in the season for Garver, but it seems like he's self-corrected. Over his last four games, he's gone 5-for-15 with a pair of runs scored and two RBI. Garver has served as the primary DH for the Mariners, which is exactly the situation we want from our fantasy catchers — fewer missed games, more at-bats, lower injury risk, etc. When Garver gets himself on a hot streak, he's capable of delivering significant power totals.

Vidal Bruján, 2B/3B/SS, Miami Marlins (10%)

The playing time situation cleared up nicely for Bruján following the Luis Arráez trade, so he deserves a look in deeper formats. His multi-position eligibility makes him an ideal add for leagues with short benches. Bruján entered Tuesday slashing .276/.354/.414 with a pair of steals and a K% of just 7.7. This is a former top-60 prospect with three separate 40-steal seasons on his minor league resume, so an age-26 breakout wouldn’t be the craziest development.

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